NovMo (formally NaNoWriMo)

November is Novel Month!

It's almost November, which means you've likely seen the term "NovMo" floating around YWS. But, what does that mean? NovMo stands for Novel Month and is a challenge to write a novel in a month!

NovMo is YWS's preferred term for NaNoWriMo, for reasons explained here. NaNoWriMo started in 1999 as a simple but daunting challenge: write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. It's intense. It's rewarding. It can be down-right exhausting. You can do as much planning beforehand that you want to (which is why October is often called "PlanMo" as NovMo-ers try to plot out what they'll write in November) but the big push comes in November.

Now, 50,000 words might sound intimidating -- but don't fret! You might be surprised at how many words you can crank out once you beat down the inner editor and just WRITE instead of trying to edit as you go. But even if you don't get to the big 50K, whatever you wrote will be that much closer to you having a completed novel! And it will also stretch your writing muscles and make you more likely to hit 50K in subsequent years!

Where Do I Start?

Good question!

Head on over to the NovMo Forum and start plotting out your novel! Read through some others' threads to gain inspiration or check out the archives to get an idea of how things have gone in previous years.

Then, once NovMo starts (November 1st!) get to writing! Post your daily progress (in your planning thread or on your wall) and let the rest of us hype you up as you go! If you make wall posts, make sure to tag them with #NovMo to be sure we all can find your updates!

Hey Shady!

make sure to tag them with #NaNo or #NaNo2020 to be sure we all can find your updates!

Where do I use the #NaNo tag? In the post itself? Because it isn't linked to anything, this way. Sorry for the ignorance... (✿´‿`)

Hi @omer, good question! If you go to the People Tab, you can make status updates where those tags will work. I don't believe hashtags work for forum posts (which is what this is) but if you were, for example, to click on my profile you'd see the last thing I posted has the #NaNo tag which you can then click to link to other status updates

@ShadowVyper
Are we allowed to post an essay or other type of writings other than novels?

@ChrisDixon, officially NaNoWriMo is for novel-writing, but they do have "NaNo Rebels," which just means people who spend November writing something other than a brand-new novel, like short story collections, screenplays, etc. (I'm a Rebel this year because I'm finishing an existing novel instead of writing a new one!) It's really about spending the month writing and writing regularly and a lot!

I am on day 3 of my NaNoWriMo! And it is my first time! It is so exciting!!

You're doing great, @piyaliarchives!! Keep it up!!

can do NaNo on a novel I've already started the first chapter of?

@TheMythMaster sure you can!
*Officially* you're supposed to start a brand new novel for NaNo, but you can do whatever you want. I've usually used NaNo to power through whatever I happen to be working on at the time and have rarely started from the beginning of a book

so how got write like at least 5,000 reviews and stuff to get all of that

@SadboyJay reviewing is great, but isn't a requirement for NaNo! The goal of NaNo is to write your novel, which you may or may not post to the site -- that's up to you!

@SadboyJay NaNoWriMo is different from RevMo in that it's about writing your own literary works (though if you have time, it would be great to review someone else's work!)

Hello! You may have noticed that your friendly neighborhood Gen Lit mods have been using Novel Month (or "NovMo") instead of National Novel Writing Month (or "NaNo") in all our official announcements. Here's the reasoning behind that change:

• Using NovMo separates YWS from the trademarked NaNoWriMo and the NaNoWriMo site's stances. The "official" NaNo website has been rather controversial lately. We'd like to distance YWS from that and emphasize that we're a safe place for young writers to share their writing.
• NaNoWriMo stands for "National Novel Writing Month", and YWS is really an international site, so Novel Month is both more accurate and more inclusive.

What does that mean for you? Well, we're not going to force anyone to call it NovMo, of course! =P NovMo is simply the language we're going to officially use for our November novel-writing event.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions, and happy NovMoing! ^-^